ARTICLES ABOUT VALUJET AIRLINES BY DATE - PAGE 3

ValuJet union wants probe: A ValuJet Airlines union asked the Transportation Department's inspector general to investigate the department's tentative decision to allow the low-cost airline to resume operations. The Association of Flight Attendants said that the department's decision was made despite a faulty application by ValuJet, which it said had misrepresented itself. Atlanta-based ValuJet was grounded on June 17 because of a series of safety shortcomings uncovered after the crash of its flight 592 on May 11 in Florida killed 110 people.

ValuJet Airlines won tentative approval to return to the skies on Thursday as regulators declared the troubled carrier has upgraded operations to meet federal safety standards. The Federal Aviation Administration returned ValuJet's operating certificate as the U.S. Department of Transportation, in a parallel action, issued a tentative finding of the airline's fitness. A seven-day comment period began on Thursday, meaning the carrier could begin operating again as early as the end of next week.

A U.S. Department of Transportation official said Wednesday that it is "highly unlikely" that ValuJet Airlines Inc. will be flying scheduled flights before September of this year because of the length of the recertification process. Transportation Department spokesman Bill Schultz said that the department will not have completed its fitness review of ValuJet before September. The department has not taken any action on ValuJet's application for recertification. When it does, though, it will first issue a "show cause" order, giving interested parties 15 days to submit comments telling why ValuJet should or should not be allowed to resume scheduled flights.

ValuJet Airlines gave up the landing rights it had been leasing from Continental Airlines at New York's LaGuardia Airport. ValuJet, which was shut down shortly after a May crash in Florida, has been trying to regain permission to fly and hopes to resume service, with a sharply reduced schedule, by week's end.

ValuJet relinquishes LaGuardia slots: ValuJet Airlines relinquished its takeoff and landing rights at New York's LaGuardia Airport, an airline spokesman said Monday. The rights, which ValuJet had been leasing from Continental Airlines, allowed for five takeoffs and five landings each day. ValuJet has been trying to regain FAA permission to fly and hopes to resume service by the end of the week. ValuJet has been shut down since shortly after a May crash in Florida, which prompted intense FAA scrutiny.

Searchers on Friday found the bodies of two more victims of downed TWA Flight 800, bringing to 204 the number recovered. Also pulled from the ocean was a large piece of the roof from the plane's center section, which investigators have added to their reconstruction of the Boeing 747, said Robert Francis, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. The Paris-bound plane exploded off Long Island on July 17, killing all 230 people on board. The cause of the explosion is unknown.

ValuJet Airlines expects to begin flying again sometime between Aug. 15 and 23. Nine planes would serve Atlanta and four other undisclosed cities. The Atlanta-based discount airline was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration on June 17 following a fatal crash in the Everglades.

The Transportation Department's former inspector general alleged Wednesday that the agency's "highly irregular" treatment of ValuJet Airlines made her suspect that the carrier enjoyed special influence among senior officials prior to the May 11 crash that killed 110 people. In testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee, Mary Schiavo, who resigned as inspector general earlier this month, described events in February that she said reflected favoritism toward ValuJet by Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and his former chief of staff, Ann Bormolini.

ValuJet Airlines flight attendants sparred in front of a congressional committee Wednesday over the airline's safety and its treatment of employees. ValuJet is an unsafe airline that has shown little interest in employees' safety concerns, said Susan Clayton, a ValuJet flight attendant and local executive president of the Association of Flight Attendants. But ValuJet flight attendant Mimi Halperin countered that safety is the airline's No. 1 priority. Allegations were made at the first public hearing before a House committee on a bill to give protection for "whistleblowers," employees who provide air safety information.

Mary Fackler Schiavo has been one of the most persistent, outspoken critics of the Federal Aviation Administration--and to some extent, appropriately so. As inspector general of the Transportation Department, it is her duty to investigate FAA operations and speak up when corrective action is needed. Further, with the FAA's admission that it was lax in overseeing the rapid growth and safety lapses of ValuJet Airlines before the fatal ValuJet crash in Florida May 11, the FAA itself raised disturbing questions about its performance.